Harnessing Millets for Climate Resilience and Nutritional Security in India

Abstract

Millets have been widely recognized as ‘nutricereals’ as they are rich in nutrients. India is the leading producer of millets. These are crops which require low moisture, are short duration and can bear elevated temperatures. It is known that the effects of climate change will have a negative impact on Indian agriculture by reducing yields, deteriorating quality of grain, increase in price, etc. Hence, there is a demanding need to look for solutions that ensure food security, income security as well as nutritional security. This study is an attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of status of millets in India in terms of growth, nutrition and climate resilience. Annual growth trends were calculated for pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum and small millets. The results revealed that the growth rate of area & production for small millets has shown negative trends while the yield has shown positive trend. In decadal analysis the highest negative growth was witnessed in the last decade i.e., 2010-2020. While varied trends were reported for jowar, bajra and ragi individually. Literature review showed that be it pearl millet, finger millet or small millets are used as antidiabetic food option. And are proven to be a solution for food and nutritional security in case of climate change events. It is required that these crops be incentivised by government through proper market linkage and remunerative price.